Great American Backyard Campout - Newmarket, NH

Campers arriving and setting up there tents.

JD talking with the campers about Leave No Trace.


Like the other traveling teams, we also spent last Saturday at a Great American Backyard Campout event. We were in Newmarket, NH for our campout. The campout saw about 100 kids from the Newmarket area come together for a fun evening of games, music, food, and of course Leave No Trace. About 25 kids came over and joined in on some Leave No Trace activities.

Great American Backyard Campout

Over the weekend, we took part in the Great American Backyard Campout on Whidbey Island in Washington.  The campout, a national program put on by the National Wildlife Federation, provides an opportunity for everyone to relive-or to experience for the first time-how much fun it is to spend a night sleeping under the stars and enjoying the sounds of nature.  Campers at Whidbey Island were part of over 40,000 campers nation wide that decided to "unplug" for the night and get outside with the family.

Campers were offered a variety of activities over the weekend, including dutch oven cooking demonstrations by Northwest Dutch Oven Cooking Society, campfire activities, star gazing, surf fishing, gps & geocaching, archery, and, of course, Leave No Trace activities.  We presented workshops for adults and children, focusing on ways the campers can leave no trace while camping out this summer.  We had a lot of fun working with the navy families.  Campouts are a great way to connect to nature, especially for children!  So take the time this summer to get outside and spend a night under the stars- you won't regret it!  A special thanks to Dave Meyers for all his hard work in setting up the campout!  We are looking forward to working with Dave again later this week at a trainer course, also held on Whidbey Island!

Safe travels and happy camping...Kate and Tracy

Picture of the Week: Outdoor Classroom

There are many beautiful outdoor areas that make great classrooms. This is one of our favorites...the beach at Donnell Pond near Ellsworth, ME. Where is your favorite outdoor classroom?

Trainer Course at Student Conservation Association HQ

For our most recent Trainer Course, we headed to Student Conservation Association (SCA) headquarters in Charlestown, NH. In addition to SCA crew leaders, we were joined by several representatives form the White Mountain National Forest and one lone Boy Scout leader. We had a great time, and were excited to meet up with New Hampshire State Advocate, Lew Shelley. Thanks for putting together a great Trainer Course Lew!

Here are a few of our favorite photos from the course!

How Green Is Your Grass?

We spent the better part of last week at The Telluride Bluegrass Festival.  During the festival, we had the pleasure of running and judging How Green is your Grass? - a creative campsite challenge.  This contest encourages Festivarians to raise the bar for sustainable camping by honoring campsites that excel in achieving the highest level of sustainability, cleanliness, and creativity during their stay at the festival. There were daily winners each of the four days that are now finalists for the grand prize.  Daily winners enjoyed a prize package that included Chaco gear, Clif Bars, and New Belgium Beer.   Stay tuned, the winer of the 2009 How Green is your Grass? competition will be announced on the next "Notes from the Planet" email.

In addition to the campsite challenge, the entire festival embraced sustainable living.  For example, Eco Products donated compostable bags that were handed out by camp hosts at each of the campgrounds.  The New Community Coalition (TNCC) coordinated stations called CRT (Compost, Recycle, Trash) and they were able to provide trained volunteers the entire four days at each station to direct waste to the proper receptacle.   Also, Renewable Choice Energy was able to offset all of the travel the bands did to get there.  Each year Planet Bluegrass continues to find new and exciting ways to challenge Festivarians to leave their concert space better than they found it.  Hats off to everyone who participated in making this years festival a supreme success in sustainability!

Safe Travels...Kate and Tracy

Picture of the Week 6/19/09

Team West speaks to over 10,000 festivarians at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival!

Manice Education Center and one Red Eft

Yesterday we headed to the Berkshire Mountains to work with a great group of outdoor educators at the Manice Education Center in Florida, MA. Manice Education Center offers urban teens a variety of courses in environmental education and wilderness leadership. Students spend up to 11-days on wilderness courses, where they can study local ecology, discuss current environmental issues and learn backcountry camping and traveling skills. We were excited to share some of our favorite Leave No Trace activities (straight from our Teen and PEAK Packs) with the instructors and hope that they will have success sharing these activities with their students this summer.


After our presentation, we headed outside and saw a Red Eft swimming in the lake at Manice Education Center. Then this morning we went for a short hike and spied this little guy sitting on the trail.

Geo Jamboree 7

We spent a fun and soggy weekend at GC1K21P (that’s Kettletown State Park in Southbury, CT for all you geo-caching novices) for Geo Jamboree 7. With 44 caches, it was not surprising that almost 300 geo-caching enthusiasts took part in the 2-day event. In addition to hunting down caches (several of which required boats and rappel gear to reach) there was camping, live music and some pretty serious cuisine! We had a great time and want to give a special “THANK YOU” the CT A-Team (Walt, Ian, and Chris) for sharing their camp with us, for feeding us some amazing “camp food” and for keeping up company. Happy geo-hunting!

What are some good resources for planning your next outdoor adventure???

Land managers, local guides/outfitters, and guide books, are smart places to begin planning for outdoor trips of all kinds.



We were very excited to visit Guilford, CT to meet up with one of our amazing Leave No Trace partners…FALCON GUIDES. We had a great time and were so impressed that over 40 employees from Global Pequot Press chose to spend their lunch-hour talking about Leave No Trace with us. In addition to sharing Leave No Trace information about our skills, ethics and programs, we were able to learn a lot about the book business. For example, did you know that Falcon Guides has published over 11,000 FalconGuide trails, rides, and waterways and as many as 50,000 climbing routes for all over the United States and many European countries, which makes them a great source when you are in the Plan Ahead and Prepare stage of your next adventure.
We’d like to give a big thank you to Max Phelps, Director of Sales and Marketing, for taking the time to set this up and show us around once we arrived in Guilford. We had a great time and can’t wait to see the whole Falcon Guides crew at Outdoor Retailer in a few weeks!

Cape Cod National Seashore

Neither of us have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time near an ocean, which is why we were extremely excited to see these amazing creatures when we visited the Cape Cod National Seashore a few days ago!!!

Lyons Outdoor Games

We had a super weekend in Lyons, CO for the Lyons Outdoor Games.  With the sun shining, music playing, and athletes showing off their skills, the town on Lyons was full of life.  Created 6-years ago as the Lyons Whitewater Festival, an excuse for paddling buddies from around the country to come together for a day of play in the famed Lyons Whitewater park, the Lyons Outdoor Games has grown into a world class celebration of mountain sports featuring kayaking, mountain biking and even dog events.  

Outdoor enthusiasts of all ages came out to enjoy the competitions.  One of the youngest enthusiasts we met shared her love for the outdoors and had something to say about those that litter- "Littering is like punching mother nature in the stomach!"  We couldn't have said it better ourselves, kids sure do tell it like it is.  

On Sunday morning we gathered volunteers to clean up the town and then met at the 'a-hole' for a delicious gourmet breakfast catered by A Spice of Life.  A very special thanks to Dan for providing a wonderful meal for all of the volunteers!  

We are off to Telluride for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival...

Safe Travels, Kate and Tracy

Picture of the Week: Presidential Traverse

Last week we had a few days off, so we headed to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a little hiking in the Presidential Range.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT BIGFOOT…

He’s really good at Leave No Trace and he probably wears a very large boot (if he even wears boots).  Speaking of large boots, we spent the weekend in Freeport, Maine, where we saw thousands of people gearing up for summer at the L.L. Bean Paddlefest.  We challenged many of these folks to take the Bigfoot Challenge!  Now we are challenging you! 

Take the challenge, challenge your friends, and LEAVE NO TRACE (after all, Bigfoot’s been doing it for years)! 

Did we mention prizes?  Oh yeah, you know we’re giving away some sweet gear from some of our amazing partners.  To find out more about the Leave No Trace Bigfoot Challenge visit our website.

Time to take the Bigfoot Challenge!

In celebration of 10 years of Education in Motion, the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer program has teamed up with Mr. Bigfoot himself to challenge the outdoor community to make a difference this summer!  By visiting www.lnt.org/bigfootchallenge or catching up with the Traveling Trainers at an event this summer, you have a chance to take the Leave No Trace Bigfoot challenge and try to leave no trace just like Bigfoot has been doing for years!  We have only one question for you...are you up for the challenge?

Picture of the Week 6-5-09

Some folks will try anything to get a ride in the Leave No Trace Subaru!!!

SWAG and Leave No Trace Go Higher!

This weekend we joined the crew from Southwest Adventure Guides (SWAG) in Durango, CO for a fun-filled trainer course.  Spending most of our time in the San Juan National Forest near the Colorado Trail, we explored the skills and ethics of Leave No Trace in a fun and interactive way!  The guides from SWAG were very interested in learning techniques that they can integrate into their trips, whether it be guided climbing, mountaineering, or backcountry skiing.  Between Cathole Olympics and a hilarious skit on Respecting Wildlife, there were many laughs and a lot of learning had by all!  

Next time you are in Durango, CO and you are looking for a great outdoor adventure, look up Southwest Adventure Guides and Go Higher!

Thanks to Nate Disser and his crew for a memorable course in beautiful Durango, CO!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy